French New Testament

French is an official language in 29 independent nations, from France itself, to Rwanda in Africa, Haiti in the Caribbean, Canada in North America and Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. Christianity and the Bible in the French-speaking world have a rich and complex history. The first French Bible translated from the original Hebrew and Greek texts was prepared by Pierre Robert Olivetan and published in 1535. The famous theologian and pastor John Calvin was involved in early revisions of Olivetan’s work.

Since 2013 the Society has been revising the 1872 Lausanne Bible. By God’s grace, the New Testament has been typeset and the revision team and helpers are now proofreading the text. A few further amendments are expected at this stage before it is approved by the Society for publication. Work has also commenced on the Old Testament, the team have now completed Psalms and Proverbs and are currently working through Genesis. Earlier this year a second edition of the French Gospel according to Matthew was published. We are grateful to our friends at TBS (Canada) for their financial and prayerful support of this project.

We continue labouring on the French Bible project with the fervent prayer that the Scriptures being prepared would be blessed mightily by the Lord because ‘these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name’ (John 20.31).